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Talk:Software patents exist in Europe, kinda

Geographical scope

Shouldn't this be renamed to "Software patents exist in European Union, kinda" or "Limited software patents exist in European Union"?

The scope is hard to define.
If we measure it by looking at the legislation or the patent offices, we could say this advice applies to "the EPC zone", which is bigger than the EU. If we measure it from the courts, it's kinda country by country, and they're not bound by each other's rulings but they do kinda listen to each other, and there's work under way to create a unified European patent jurisdiction, which might become an EU jurisdiction, but is more likely to become an international treaty outside the EU with a smaller number of signatories.
So there's not really any one boarder or name that fits. What could be improved, is that the article could explain this. I'll give that a go now :-) Ciaran 17:25, 7 October 2010 (EDT)